Revenue Strike, Indeed

Whether you think that the way to have averted them would have been to have met the unions' claims, or to have ordered in the troops, and only one of those would have worked, the fact that the strikes are going ahead is proof of the Government's failure. It appoints the public sector pay review bodies, it sets their terms of reference, and it is free to accept or reject their recommendations.

Although they are state contractors, the rail operators are private companies, or at least not part of the British State even though they are frequently arms of other people's. The Royal Mail is no longer part of the public sector at all, a situation the bizarreness of which is surpassed only by the fact that it is now separate from the Post Office, which is still in public ownership.

In that context, the politicisation of the Armed Forces is even more disturbing than it would be in any case. There is a word for the merger of state and corporate power, as there is for the use of British military force in the service of one or more foreign states, never mind against British citizens in the United Kingdom.

There cannot be a revenue strike, whereby transport workers went to work but refused to collect fares, thereby enabling passengers to travel for free. That tactic, which has been deployed successfully in Japan and elsewhere, was outlawed in Britain by Margaret Thatcher. It was kept illegal by the last Labour Government.

The Labour Leadership has already said that it would keep whatever anti-union legislation the Government had put in place. It is no wonder that in less than a month, Labour's poll lead has fallen from 36 points to 13, a cut of two thirds. Andrew Fisher's otherwise excellent article would have had far more of an impact if it never mentioned chanting, "Oh, Keir Starmer!" I speak as someone who has edited Andrew in both of our times. Fair play to him for having managed to sneak references to the Forde Report and The Labour Files into The Guardian. Someone must already be off for Christmas.

Starmer is an inexperienced politician who may show signs of backsliding. Therefore, the plan is to bring back David Miliband to wait in the wings. Miliband should contest Islington North for Labour. Of what would he be afraid? Of whom would he be afraid? And why? Miliband would be guaranteed fawning coverage on ITV. The Labour Right's in-house television station is funded only by its giant corporate advertisers. Clearly, this is what they want. The same is true of LBC, with its guest presenter gigs for Wes Streeting, Rachel Reeves, David Lammy and Sadiq Kahn, and with its regular Call Keir feature.

Hence Richard Madeley's preposterous attempt to take down Mick Lynch, hence Alan Johnson on The Masked Singer, hence Piers Morgan's gushing "interview" with Starmer, hence Morgan's handover of the gig to Derek Draper's wife, and hence his replacement in the morning with Alastair Campbell and Ed Balls. Gordon Brown in his autobiography stated matter-of-factly that his protégé, Balls, did popular television as part of a strategy to make himself Prime Minister. Well, it worked for Boris Johnson, and it yet may again. Morgan has fallen a long way since his opposition to the Iraq War unleashed the torrent of personal abuse to which he has been subject ever since.

We are heading for a hung Parliament. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not.